Expandable police batons are a powerful defensive tool in military or anti-riot activities. An expandable police baton can be either expanded to form a long stick for deterrence or telescoped into itself to form a short stick for ease of carry and storage. It is common nowadays for security guards, law enforcement officers, or other security personnel to carry an expandable police baton with them in order to effectively protect people and their homes and properties, sometimes including the baton users themselves. In light of the fact that expandable police batons are advantageously easy to carry and master, ordinary people may also find the batons useful and keep them handy for self-protection.
A conventional expandable police baton is shown in FIG. 1. The expandable police baton 1 has a three-section structure composed essentially of three hollow tubes of different diameters, namely an outer tube 10, a middle tube 12, and an inner tube 13. The outer tube 10 is larger in diameter than the middle tube 12, and the middle tube 12 is larger in diameter than the inner tube 13. The inner tube 13 can be telescoped into the middle tube 12, and the middle tube 12, into the outer tube 10. When the outer tube 10 of the expandable police baton 1 is held and forcefully swung, the middle tube 12 and the inner tube 13 protrude from the outer tube 10 and then mutually engage with each other such that the expandable police baton 1 is expanded and forms a long stick. When a pressure is subsequently applied to the expandable police baton 1, the inner tube 13 and the middle tube 12 are successively telescoped into the outer tube 10 to form a short stick for ease of carry and storage.
The bottom end of the outer tube 10 is provided with a detachable cover 14. The cover 14 has a receiving space in which an engaging elastic strip 143 is fixed with a corresponding screw 141. When the expandable police baton 1 is pressured in such a way that the inner tube 13 and the middle tube 12 are telescoped into the outer tube 10 to form a short stick, the inner tube 13 is precisely engaged with the engaging elastic strip 143 and tightly secured against loosening. Besides, the front end of the inner tube 13 is provided with a head 15 having a greater outer diameter than the inner tube 13, thereby confining both the inner tube 13 and the middle tube 12 inside the outer tube 10. Moreover, the outer surface of the outer tube 10 is covered with a layer of foam 11 such that the outer tube 10 can be easily held without sliding.
It should be noted that the tubes 10, 12, and 13 of the expandable police baton 1 are mutually engaged through the differences between their diameters. Hence, after long-term use, the engaging portions of the tubes 10, 12, and 13 are prone to be worn or be deformed due to metal fatigue. In either case, engagement between the tubes 10, 12, and 13 will be compromised, if not severely loosened. In addition, once the expandable police baton 1 forms a long stick by mutual engagement between the tubes 10, 12, and 13, the baton cannot be collapsed unless the head 15 is hit with force to release the tubes 10, 12, and 13 from mutual engagement. Frequent telescoping of the tubes 10, 12, and 13, however, not only aggravates wear and tear but also causes enormous noise that may frighten people nearby. Therefore, the issue to be addressed by the present invention is to provide a solution to the aforementioned problems of the conventional expandable police batons.